Northwest Hospital Subacute Care Unit Receives High Ranking

U.S. News uses government criteria for this list, and in this case, the government defines a nursing home as a Medicare or Medicaid facility that provides 24-hour nursing care and other medical services.

Northwest Hospital’s Subacute Care Unit treats patients who have been discharged from the hospital’s acute care services, but who still need specialized treatment therapies before going home.

The rankings highlight facilities across the country which provide high-quality care and are tools for millions of elderly Americans and their families in search of supervision for the elderly and/or disabled who need more care than is offered in an acute hospital setting.

U.S. News’s Best Nursing Homes profiles more than 15,000 centers and ranks them by state, using data and quality ratings from the federal government. The rankings are updated quarterly.

They rely on information from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that sets and enforces quality standards for all homes enrolled in Medicare or Medicaid. The overall rating of one to five stars is based on the number of stars earned in three other categories: health inspections, nurse staffing, and quality of care.

Facilities that ranked highest in Best Nursing Homes 2011 earned overall five-star ratings. Only about one home in seven met this standard.

“Choosing a nursing home for your parent or loved one is incredibly difficult,” says Avery Comarow, Health Rankings Editor at U.S. News & World Report. “Homes at the top of our rankings have repeatedly shown high quality and deserve consideration.”